Victoria Mary Clarke has said that that her late husband Shane MacGowan always found his success regarding his Christmas single 'Fairytale of New York' to be "amusing".
MacGowan who famously co-founded The Pogues in 1982, is perhaps best known for his band's Christmas hit, which was released in 1988, featuring the late singer Kirsty McColl.
Despite being born on Christmas Day 1957 to Irish parents who raised him in Kent, Shane's widow Victoria Mary Clarke has said that her late husband was not overly fussed about the festive season.
“Shane wasn’t fussed about Christmas at all. Like he always said, ‘It’s Jesus’s birthday’", she said. “He never thought it was about presents or turkeys or any of that stuff. He indulged me because I always insisted on having a tree, and he would think that was cute with the decorations".
“But he wasn’t fussed about presents unless they were things he really wanted. The last Christmas he was here, I got him some albums that he absolutely loved, and he was really excited about them. He wasn’t a materialistic person".
In fact, Clarke revealed that Shane preferred "quiet" Christmases.
“He loved to go to his family in Tipperary, that was his favourite thing to do", she added.
Elsewhere, Victoria Mary Clarke also stated that Shane was always amused by the popularity regarding The Pogues' Fairytale of New York, a track which re-enters the charts in December worldwide.
“I think he was genuinely pleased that people wanted to play it and that it was recognised, and he did definitely appreciate what a brilliant piece of songwriting it was", Clarke explained. “At the same time, he had other songs he was fond of that he might have liked people to know about".
Victoria Mary Clarke mentioned tracks White City, Victoria, and Christmas Lullaby as particular favourites of hers from the Pogues' back catalogue.
“Not many people know about it, but it’s quite profound, especially now because there’s a line about Christmas in Palestine", Clarke said.
She also added that she may eventually get round to compiling the 'realms' of prose that MacGowan wrote about characters who appeared in his tracks.
“He wrote a lot of stories about rehab,” she said. “He first went in there when he was 18, and he wrote very funny, dark and perceptive stories about the conversations he heard in there, and the interactions with his psychiatrist and the other patients. There’s masses of work that no one’s ever seen".
Shane MacGowan passed away on 30 November last year aged 65, and Victoria recently thanked her friends for supporting her as she grieves for Shane.
“You just have to let yourself feel it. So there was a lot of howling and crying and feeling shit – the symptoms are very physical, like a pain in your ribs – and you don’t want to get out of bed,” she said.
“My world was me and Shane most of the time,” she said. “He looked after me, we looked after each other. We were complete".
